Uber has blurred the distinction between the web and reality ?

Funny that we need an article in a literary magazine to remind us of this fact. I guess what it really points out is that humans are very fond of making distinctions in order to make sense of things. We break the world up into small digestible pieces. Easy to chew, easy to swallow.

It’s similar to the distinction people make between the mind and the body. Is there anything that’s not the “real world?” Did anyone ever claim that the web is not the real world?

I guess it could be claimed that the web is a different world. And people sometimes say that something different is not real as their familiar counterparts. It has been said that people with different customs and colors aren’t real people. It is a dangerous habit. It’s good for a literary magazine to be pointing out that something different is in fact real.

The thing that drew me into the article was its mention of the ride sharing app / company Uber. Since I’m a taxi driver I always read articles about Uber.

It bugs me that Uber is held up as the thing that is blurring the distinction between the web and the real world.

It’s like saying that the telephone was a different world. And that being able to call a taxi on the phone blurred the distinction between the telephone and the real world. It made the telephone a useful device instead of just a fantasy toy or whatever, a way to do meaningless things like talk to people in other cities. Since back then, another city might as well have been a different world, hence a world with less reality than one’s actual location. Out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind, out of reality.

It was a good article, it made me think.

9:00 AM – Further thoughts…

A little more insight may reveal the location of the dividing line between our reality and the other, unreal world. Of course it isn’t a “real” line, it exists only in our collective thoughts, but its location illustrates the basic nature and problem of our existence on earth. We imagine ourselves to be physical creatures with bodies and material needs. This is mostly confirmed by our suffering when our bodies are not cared for and our physical needs are not met. This is reflected in all areas of our mental life and culture. It is the fact of materialism. The Atlantic magazine needs to make money. Uber needs to make money. Taxi drivers need money. Money is seen as the cure for all kinds of suffering, and it is to some extent.

When I searched for “Why the Web Sucks” I found an article ( http://www.1099.com/c/co/gw/lf/linda004.html – maybe the same one I saw in 1994, maybe not) saying it sucks because there are a bunch of people with web pages saying they are something they are not. Hucksters and snake oil salesmen. Dogs who say they are not dogs, because “no one can tell.”

Naturally, these people want money for their purported skills. This is the line between the worlds, between things that have “real” value, and things that don’t. But this line has always been blurry. People use its blurriness to claim value for things that have none. Even things having negative value. Things can be “monetized” by all kinds of claims, the value of a thing is in peoples’ minds, the more minds, the better. Mass media and mass culture value mass above all.

Physical mass, weight of material. Things without mass are often perceived to have little or no value, no reality. This is unfortunate, and I believe it is due to the low sensitivity of our instruments. A more finely attuned machine would detect mass where now we see none, giving more positive value to weightless things, unprovable things, free and ubiquitous things.

Our primary instrument is our body and awareness, whatever that may actually be. It seems to have some plasticity, the ability to learn and be attuned to new input. It seems to evolve naturally and respond to direction from within and without. There are many lines. They are all pretty blurry.